Many government agencies are beginning to implement an Agile approach to Software Development. Does each agency, however, need to “reinvent the wheel” as they start or proceed on their Agile journey? Are there patterns or criteria that would increase your prospect for success? As a Scrum Master for an Agile Transformation team in a government agency, I have identified five patterns that will improve your outcome. This talk will discuss those five patterns.

Do you run retrospectives for your agile teams? Do you find that you struggle with ideas to keep the teams excited to participate in your retrospectives?
This presentation will include ideas that you can take back and use. Your teams will be excited and these ideas will help you generate great conversations.This meet-up has a focus on Agile PM. We will be discussing pragmatic solutions to real agile project problems. Just real PMs talking about the Agile and how we can solve daily challenges.

Through a very interactive seminar combining lecture and workshops, participants will gain a much better idea of how best to deal with key risks on I.T. projects using both Agile approaches and traditional approaches.

Participants will learn:

Key definitions, concepts and PMBOK® Guide processes involving Risk

To define key risks in your I.T. projects

How to use Agile to resolve I.T. project’s problems

The types of projects and types of risks that are good candidates for using traditional (Waterfall) approaches

About the Program

Our federal government leaders have concocted a transformation that promises to turn the executive branch departments and agencies into lean and efficient organizations!

The first part of this presentation will introduce:
The legislative framework in place to drive the strategies that make the transformation a reality;
The federal strategy structure of cross-agency and agency priority goals that set the foundation to measure performance;
The governance bodies that coordinate the execution of the legal mandates across agencies;

The second part of the presentation will introduce:
Two key federal frameworks enabling the transformation
The still-evolving federal data strategy
The progress made over the first year (FY18)

Are you running into issues using Agile methods on your project? Do people argue over who should attend which meetings? Do you have unanswered questions about how Project Managers fit into the Agile World?
This meetup is for people who have discovered the path to agile methods is not the easy street that was promised. We will learn from other project leaders which issues are common, and which are unique to your context. Futhermore, we’ll collect from each other several ideas for how to overcome those issues.

Thinking in Bets: Making Smarter Decisions When You Don’t Have All the Facts by Annie Krupp (2018). Current price is $13.99 for the Kindle edition on Amazon. The book may also be available from your local library.

Even the best decision doesn't yield the best outcome every time. There's always an element of luck that you can't control, and there is always information that is hidden from view. So the key to long-term success is to think in bets: How sure am I? What are the possible ways things could turn out? What decision has the highest odds of success? Did I land in the unlucky 10% on the strategy that works 90% of the time? Or is my success attributable to dumb luck rather than great decision making?

This seminar is designed to inform managers at government agencies of the requirements for security and privacy. The instructor will define the role of the Federal Information Security Management Act (FISMA), the Federal Information Processing Standards (FIPS) and the Risk Management Framework (RMF) and tie them all together in such a way that even the non-technical Program Manager will understand. The seminar will be highly informative, include open discussion of current information security news and events, and provide attendees with a foundational understanding and importance of various cybersecurity mandates and guidelines.

As large organizations undertake the exciting journey of Agile transformation, they inevitably face a certain identity crisis that makes them question everything they have known about project management and practiced for years (and decades). PMI and the PMBOK gave us a structured framework of 5 process groups and 12 knowledge areas, with all the processes within, each with clear inputs and outputs. And then Agile came along with only 4 values and 12 principles that fit on a single page, and blew everything away.

We are amid a major transition toward Agile and DevOps, where seasoned project managers are expected to pivot and embrace a new way of delivering better software. However, most Agile training classes and books focus of the desired and ideal state of Agile practice, without connecting the dots for how to get there.

The PMIWDC Reston Book Club is a forum for talking about books that touch on the widely varied challenges of project and program management. Our meeting on Winning the Long Game will take place on Wednesday, February 27, 2019. We will meet in the first floor meeting room in the offices of CACI from 5:30pm - 6:30pm.

The evolution of structures is driven by strategy.
Transforming structures to support the business is a continuous process.
The complexity is driven by time to market, the volume of change, and talent mix.
Resource fulfillment: bodies vs talent.
Are you solving the problem at the right level?
Be tactical and strategic.

Rescue the Problem Project provides project managers, executives, and customers with an objective process for accurately assessing what is wrong and a clear plan of action for fixing the problem. Turnaround specialist Todd Williams has worked with dozens of companies in multiple industries resuscitating failing projects. In this book, he reveals an in-depth, start-to-finish process that includes: * Techniques for identifying the root causes of the trouble * Steps for putting projects back on track-audit the project, analyze the data, negotiate the solution, and execute the new plan * Nearly 70 real-world examples of what works, what doesn't, and why * Guidelines for avoiding problems in subsequent projects Many books explain how to run a project, but only this one shows how to bring it back from the brink of disaster.

So your organization is going “Agile” now and you are overwhelmed with all this terminology like backlog, user stories, sprint, daily stand ups, etc. Where do you start? What does it take to kick off your first Agile project? How do you setup your team for success? In this talk, we will explore the essential elements for kicking off your first Agile project and possible options to setup your team and project for success.

About the Event

Are you running into issues using Agile methods on your project? Do people argue over who should attend which meetings? Do you have unanswered questions about how Project Managers fit into the Agile World?

This meetup is for people who have discovered the path to agile methods is not the easy street that was promised. We will learn from other project leaders which issues are common, and which are unique to your context. Futhermore, we’ll collect from each other several ideas for how to overcome those issues.

Unlike other meet-ups, this is not a lecture. Instead, our facilitator will create an interactive exchange of which issues are bothering you, and which tips have worked for others. Please come to learn, share and experience conversations that will yield actionable tips for common issues with Agile methods.

Do the people in your organization change because they are told to or need to? Do they resist? Any malicious compliance? Having fun yet?
In this session, techniques are described for deploying new practices across the organization, and then how to manage process, people and scope changes within an Agile project.

This two-day Agile Training course offers hands-on practices in Adaptive Planning, Product Roadmap and Backlog, Estimating Practices, and Agile Metrics for measuring and reporting on project progress.
The Introduction to Agile class will introduce the student to the key reasons why an Agile approach is so essential for many projects today. We will review the principle Agile methodologies in use today, define the different stakeholder roles on Agile projects, the stages of the Agile project lifecycle, and how Lean and Value-driven delivery is applied throughout the stages of the Agile lifecycle. As we discuss these concepts, we will review key Agile estimating methods, prioritization schemes for rating value, voting methods and decision-making techniques, and also key techniques for improving communications and team performance. The class will go through different case examples to discuss how the key Agile approaches and tools-techniques are used.

This two-day Agile Training course offers hands-on practices in Adaptive Planning, Product Roadmap and Backlog, Estimating Practices, and Agile Metrics for measuring and reporting on project progress.
The Introduction to Agile class will introduce the student to the key reasons why an Agile approach is so essential for many projects today. We will review the principle Agile methodologies in use today, define the different stakeholder roles on Agile projects, the stages of the Agile project lifecycle, and how Lean and Value-driven delivery is applied throughout the stages of the Agile lifecycle. As we discuss these concepts, we will review key Agile estimating methods, prioritization schemes for rating value, voting methods and decision-making techniques, and also key techniques for improving communications and team performance. The class will go through different case examples to discuss how the key Agile approaches and tools-techniques are used.

"True belonging doesn’t require us to change who we are. It requires us to be who we are.” Social scientist Brené Brown, PhD, LMSW, has sparked a global conversation about the experiences that bring meaning to our lives—experiences of courage, vulnerability, love, belonging, shame, and empathy.

By the end of this talk, everyone in the room will be a CyberSecurity warrior. Sean will explain how to think like an attacker about your next project. From incorporating security intelligently into Agile methodologies, thinking about security in a DevOps world, secret hacks, and getting into the mindset of a researcher in a bug bounty program, you will be able to envision where your project can go wrong and how to get rid of the badness. Let's manage some risk!

Historically, federal delivery has been slow, late, incomplete, and over budget. Using modern development practices, agile, DevSecOps, cloud, etc., US Citizenship and Immigration Services has evolved over the past 6 years from yearly releases to production to daily production releases with zero down time on large applications with multiple teams. Joshua Seckel led and directed USCIS as the Applied Technology Division Chief where he was responsible for Quality Assurance, Independent Test, Enterprise Architecture, Release Management, and Agile Coaching for all of USCIS. He created and implemented the policies that allowed development teams to be able to move from waterfall slower delivery to DevSecOps delivery on par with many commercial companies. This discussion will look at the cultural and technical challenges and solutions that were found at USCIS during this transformation.

About the Event

Are you running into issues using Agile methods on your project? Do people argue over who should attend which meetings? Do you have unanswered questions about how Project Managers fit into the Agile World?

This meetup is for people who have discovered the path to agile methods is not the easy street that was promised. We will learn from other project leaders which issues are common, and which are unique to your context. Futhermore, we’ll collect from each other several ideas for how to overcome those issues.

Unlike other meet-ups, this is not a lecture. Instead, our facilitator will create an interactive exchange of which issues are bothering you, and which tips have worked for others. Please come to learn, share and experience conversations that will yield actionable tips for common issues with Agile methods.

In Prediction Machines, the authors cast the rise of AI as a drop in the cost of prediction. The book shows how basic tools from economics provide clarity about the AI revolution and a basis for action by CEOs, managers, policymakers, investors, and entrepreneurs. When AI is framed as a cheap prediction, its extraordinary potential becomes clear. The book follows its inescapable logic to explain how to navigate the changes on the horizon. The impact of AI will be profound, but the economic framework for understanding it is surprisingly simple.

In this interactive and high-energy program, Josef shows you techniques to unleash your influence. Balancing your expertise with the right interpersonal skill set allows you to advance your work and the effectiveness of your team.
Josef presents a ‘toolbox’ packed with instantly usable techniques, ideas and methods designed to give you a smart, proven, communication-based approach to the challenges and opportunities you face every day. As an outcome, you will gain influence, impact and drive innovation in your organization.

About the Book Club Meeting

About the Book Club Meeting

The PMIWDC Reston Book Club is a forum for talking about books that touch on the widely varied challenges of project and program management. Our meeting on Agile Metrics in Action will take place on Wednesday, August 29, 2018. We will meet in the first-floor meeting room in the offices of CACI from 5:30 pm - 6:30 pm.

Read more about the format of the book club in "About the Book Club" below.

The hard work and commitment finally paid off. Your senior VP congratulated you and announced that you are promoted to the senior manager position. You are faced with the prospect of management role first time. These type of career transitions, often exciting and at the same time frightening. In the wake of successful promotion, you are wondering if there must-know field proven guiding principles that will lead you through the coming days - may be less painful but a successful path.

You are not alone in this transitional struggle. According to a study by a Deloitte comprising of 7,000 organizations about, 89% of executives rated “strengthening the leadership pipeline,” an urgent issue Organizations are continuously promoting people into management, and those new leaders struggle with the transition.

This two-day Agile Training course offers hands-on practices in Iteration Planning, Product Roadmap and Backlog, Estimating Practices, User Story Development and Iteration Execution. This course has been approved and earns all students the Certified IC Agile Professional designation upon completion of the course. Additionally, a total of 14 PDUs will be available upon completion of the course.

This two-day Agile Training course offers hands-on practices in Iteration Planning, Product Roadmap and Backlog, Estimating Practices, User Story Development and Iteration Execution. This course has been approved and earns all students the Certified IC Agile Professional designation upon completion of the course. Additionally, a total of 14 PDUs will be available upon completion of the course.

The PMIWDC Reston Book Club is a forum for talking about books that touch on the widely varied challenges of project and program management. Our meeting on Tribal Leadership will take place on Wednesday, July 25, 2018. We will meet in the first-floor meeting room in the offices of CACI from 5:30 pm - 6:30 pm.

If you experience any difficulties registering for this event, please call us at 703-683-4804 or email us at info@pmiwdc.org and include the name of the event.

About the Book Club Meeting

The PMIWDC Reston Book Club is a forum for talking about books that touch on the widely varied challenges of project and program management. Our meeting on The Truth Machine will take place on Wednesday, June 27, 2018. We will meet in the first-floor meeting room in the offices of CACI from 5:30 pm - 6:30 pm.

Read more about the format of the book club in "About the Book Club" below.

Are you running into issues using Agile methods on your project? Do people argue over who should attend which meetings? Do you have unanswered questions about how Project Managers fit into the Agile World? This meet-up has a focus on Agile PM. We will be discussing pragmatic solutions to real agile project problems. Just real PMs talking about the Agile and how we can solve daily challenges.

This presentation will examine the challenges technology projects encounter; how to translate strategic goals into a portfolio of projects; how to select technology projects; assembling a portfolio that will have the highest return on investment for an organization; and developing a performance monitoring system to manage a project portfolio.

About the Program

This presentation will detail the many service offerings from both PMI and the PMI Washington, D.C. Chapter. It will show you how PMI resources can increase your knowledge, grow your network and advance your career. It's ideal for both current members and project managers thinking of becoming members.

About the Book Club Meeting

The PMIWDC Reston Book Club is a forum for talking about books that touch on the widely varied challenges of project and program management. Our meeting on Fifty Quick Ideas will take place on Wednesday, May 30, 2018. We will meet in the first-floor meeting room in the offices of CACI from 5:30pm - 6:30pm.

Read more about the format of the book club in "About the Book Club" below.

About the Book
Fifty Quick Ideas to Improve Your Retrospectives by Ben Williams and Tom Roden (2015) Current price is under $10.00 for the Kindle version on Amazon. The book may also be available from your local library.

About the Program

These are emerging models for successfully managing 21st-century human-capital, knowledge, and Internet technology-intensive global businesses. Dr. Rico will establish the context, provide a definition, and describe the value-system for lean and agile organizational strategies. He'll provide an overview and comparative analysis of major lean and agile frameworks, models, principles, and practices. He’ll then introduce a meta-model for achieving business-level agility based upon best-of-breed values, principles, and practices discussed herein. He'll also provide a brief survey of the costs, benefits, and performance results achieved by lean and agile organizations. Finally, he'll close with a summary of tips, tricks, technique, and common pitfalls of the lean and agile business paradigm.

About the Seminar

This amazing training integrates the best of Agile with materials based on the Project Management Institute, "A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge" and extends it to Agile Government contracting and program management in total compliance with the FAR, DFARS, and OMB mandates. Making the Agile transition for many has been difficult and legally risky. Until now, that is! In this class, you will receive simplified, expert guidance for legally applying Agile contracting standards to any program.

About the Presentation

This talk will discuss the cultural changes that were made at USCIS in the adoption of modern agile development practices. The discussion will include the successes and challenges of changes in an organization that has significant inertia in existing development practices and the changes that need to be made within both the IT and business organizations. The overall framework of change and recommendations will complete the discussion. It will be followed by an open interactive discussion with question and answers.

About the Event

When organizations are ready to adopt Agile at the enterprise level, people are resistant to organizational changes and have a fear of change due to loss. The organizational change could not take effect if management ignores people’s fear of change. The workshop uses Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP) to help audience recognize signs of fear and understand what caused the fear. In addition, the workshop will practice on how to use both self-actualization and NLP Logical Levels of Change methods to deal with the fear due to changes.
Outcome:
--------

About the Event

Are you running into issues using Agile methods on your project? Do people argue over who should attend which meetings? Do you have unanswered questions about how Project Managers fit into the Agile World?

This meetup is for people who have discovered the path to agile methods is not the easy street that was promised. We will learn from other project leaders which issues are common, and which are unique to your context. Furthermore, we’ll collect from each other several ideas for how to overcome those issues.

Unlike other meetups, this is not a lecture. Instead, our facilitator will create an interactive exchange of which issues are bothering you, and which tips have worked for others. Please come to learn, share and experience conversations that will yield actionable tips for common issues with Agile methods.

About the Book Club Meeting

The PMIWDC Reston Book Club is a forum for talking about books that touch on the widely varied challenges of project and program management. Our meeting on Stretch will take place on Wednesday, April 25, 2018. We will meet in the first-floor meeting room in the offices of CACI from 5:30pm - 6:30pm.

Read more about the format of the book club in "About the Book Club" below.

About the Book
Stretch: Unlock the Power of Less – and Achieve More Than You Ever Imagined by Scott Sonenshein (2017) As of this writing the price is $15.94 for a hardback version on Amazon. The book may also be available from your local library.

About the Presentation

If you want to strengthen teams and get better results having managers who the coach is key.

But in the past, it’s been difficult for busy managers to shift from the traditional management style of telling people what to do rather than taking on the coaching approach of asking. Why? In today’s world managers are stretched more thinly than ever before, continually finding themselves stuck with just too much on their plate. They don’t have time to add another task to their job description but need to coach someone fast and as part of the work they already do - not in addition to it.

Project success or failure is a fantasy when relying on project methodology key performance indicators: budget, percent complete, requirement sign-off, defect counts, story points, burndown charts, demos, retrospectives. With today’s project methodologies, their measurements are not enough to determine if a project is heading in the right direction or not. There are other project indicators that are revealed to managers on a day to day basis and can be used as a leading indicators of a project failure.

About the Book Club Meeting

About the Book Club Meeting

The PMIWDC Reston Book Club is a forum for talking about books that touch on the widely varied challenges of project and program management. Our meeting on The Inevitable will take place on Wednesday, March 28, 2018. We will meet in the first-floor meeting room in the offices of CACI from 5:30pm - 6:30pm.

Read more about the format of the book club in "About the Book Club" below.

The book club has been cancelled due to inclement weather. Please watch your email if you have already registered.

In today’s world, most technology projects need to handle increased complexity and large uncertainty along with fast-paced changes in the technological landscape. These projects are both difficult and challenging even for the most seasoned project managers and require novel approaches in order to enable successful outcomes. Creating a portfolio of these technology projects requires a versatile skill set, the ability to manage the unforeseen, and a strategic vision. In this presentation best practices for technology portfolio management will be discussed.

There is no such thing as perfect knowledge. Risk – either negative or positive – is a function of uncertainty about the project and its environment. Risk Management is the disciplined approach to managing uncertainty by encouraging proactive thinking about project, program, and portfolio outcomes. Risk Management saves time, money, and human resources because it forces project teams to consider the “what ifs” that could happen to the project, and in doing so, teams develop strategies for handling threats and opportunities before they become issues.

Agile practices are sweeping through the project management industry. Agile is being used in industries as varied as software development to organizational leadership and news reporting. Agile projects are 4-times more likely to be successful than traditional waterfall projects, according to the Standish Group.

Lean and Kanban practices are at the heart of many Agile practices. These practices are most often associated with Toyota’s manufacturing model. However, they are broadly applicable to project management.

About the Book Club Meeting

The PMIWDC Reston Book Club is a forum for talking about books that touch on the widely varied challenges of project and program management. Our meeting on How Google Tests Software will take place on Wednesday, February 28, 2018. We will meet in the first floor meeting room in the offices of CACI from 5:30pm - 6:30pm.

Read more about the format of the book club in "About the Book Club" below.

About the Book
How Google Tests Software by James A.Whittaker and Jason Arbon (2012) As of this writing the price is $23.66 for a paperback version on Amazon. The book may also be available from your local library.

During this session, different models for assessing agile team maturity and approaches to generate a coaching action plan, will be discussed. Focus will be placed on the TDA (Team Diagnostic Assessment) from Team Coaching International and if time permits, Mr. Nkomba will also discuss the U.S. federal Government’s Digital Services Playbook.

About the Book Club Meeting

The PMIWDC Reston Book Club is a forum for talking about books that touch on the widely varied challenges of project and program management. Our meeting will take place on Wednesday, January 31, 2018. We will meet in the first floor meeting room in the offices of CACI from 5:30pm - 6:30pm.

About the Presentation

Many executives working to execute a successful digital transformation are stuck at the tyranny of how. They understand the importance of a successful digital transformation for their organization; however, they don’t really know what that looks like for their organization.

This session outlines real-world digital transformation successes and failures, case studies from actual clients and a live demo of digital transformation in action.

Previous sessions outlined the steps to a successful digital transformation and how to overcome key barriers to digital transformation. This topic is the next session in the series to guide midmarket companies through a successful digital transformation journey..

About the Program

ServiceNow’s Jakarta release of its IT Business Management (ITBM) Solution leverages a common platform, a configuration management database, and resource capabilities to align strategy with critical business and technology services, programs, and applications. Project and Portfolio managers are talking about using a common platform, flexible workflow, and configurability as prominent features that are helping them to deliver on their strategic technology portfolios. A demo of the Project and Portfolio Management (PPM) Suite will highlight:

About the Event

Are you running into issues using Agile methods on your project? Do people argue over who should attend which meetings? Do you have unanswered questions about how Project Managers fit into the Agile World?

This meetup is for people who have discovered the path to agile methods is not the easy street that was promised. We will learn from other project leaders which issues are common, and which are unique to your context. Furthermore, we’ll collect from each other several ideas for how to overcome those issues.

Unlike other meetups, this is not a lecture. Instead, our facilitator will create an interactive exchange of which issues are bothering you, and which tips have worked for others. Please come to learn, share and experience conversations that will yield actionable tips for common issues with Agile methods.

About the Event

For too long, traditional classroom instructions have been created on the assumptions that they should be fact based. In the corporate world too, most of the training and lecture content is printed on power point slides. Some might not know that this is not the most effective way to teach or learn. The problems we face with this approach are, learners lose interest during the training or lecturing session and/or they can not retain the information given to them. Various researchers have shown brain based learning techniques are most helpful. Brains normal process is to learn new information or enhance any information. As long as our brains are not prohibited from fulfilling its normal process, learning will occur.

About the Program

When managing a project within your own organization, or a client’s, a project manager may encounter stakeholders with priorities that do not align. For instance, one stakeholder may view a project as a necessary investment, while another may view the project as a waste of time and money. If those priorities are competing, this can have a negative effect on the project’s outcome by causing delays, excessive frustration, or even project failure.

This presentation will review case studies from Afghanistan, teaching 8th graders and private sector clients to discuss techniques that will assess the stakeholder’s motivations and goals, and engage the stakeholder in a way that helps gain buy-in and minimizes the negative effect on the project and helps complete the project on time, within budget, and within scope.

About the Event

Are you running into issues using Agile methods on your project? Do people argue over who should attend which meetings? Do you have unanswered questions about how Project Managers fit into the Agile World?

This meetup is for people who have discovered the path to agile methods is not the easy street that was promised. We will learn from other project leaders which issues are common, and which are unique to your context. Furthermore, we’ll collect from each other several ideas for how to overcome those issues.

Unlike other meetups, this is not a lecture. Instead, our facilitator will create an interactive exchange of which issues are bothering you, and which tips have worked for others. Please come to learn, share and experience conversations that will yield actionable tips for common issues with Agile methods.

About the Event

When organizations are ready to adopt Agile at the enterprise level, people are resistant to organizational changes and have a fear of change due to loss. The organizational change could not take effect if management ignores people’s fear of change. The workshop uses Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP) to help audience recognize signs of fear and understand what caused the fear. In addition, the workshop will practice on how to use both self-actualization and NLP Logical Levels of Change methods to deal with the fear due to changes.

About the Program

Agile practices are sweeping through the project management industry. Agile is being used in industries as varied as software development to organizational leadership and news reporting. Agile projects are 4-times more likely to be successful than traditional waterfall projects, according to the Standish Group.

Lean and Kanban practices are at the heart of many Agile practices. These practices are most often associated with Toyota’s manufacturing model. However, they are broadly applicable to project management.

About the Presentation

Over the last 5 years, Agile approaches have seen widespread adoption across the US Federal Government. Where real commitment is given to proven Agile frameworks and techniques, programs do see significant improvement in value delivery and speed. But unfortunately often, ‘Agile’ nomenclature is used while perpetuating behaviors that make real improvement impossible and may actually make the lived experience worse for participants or stakeholders. And where Agile approaches fail, they add to a narrative that real methods won’t work in this environment. Many of the anti-patterns I’ve seen working as a Coach in the Public Sector are rooted in decisionmakers clinging to 5 myths about Agile in Government. This talk will explore these 5 myths, and some approaches for dealing with them.

About the Event

The Federal Government is increasingly mandating the application of Agile software development across its technical acquisition programs. This trend comes from the realization that iterative and incremental development and delivery of software-intensive systems lowers costs, compresses schedules, improves quality, and delivers capabilities better aligned to the needs of system stakeholders and end users. However, two factors typically cripple Federal Agile development projects: the application of traditional program management, IT governance, acquisition, and contracting practices incompatible with Agile; and difficulty scaling Agile practices to deliver large-scale, highly complex systems.

About the Event

Are you running into issues using Agile methods on your project? Do people argue over who should attend which meetings? Do you have unanswered questions about how Project Managers fit into the Agile World?

This meetup is for people who have discovered the path to agile methods is not the easy street that was promised. We will learn from other project leaders which issues are common, and which are unique to your context. Furthermore, we’ll collect from each other several ideas for how to overcome those issues.

Unlike other meetups, this is not a lecture. Instead, our facilitator will create an interactive exchange of which issues are bothering you, and which tips have worked for others. Please come to learn, share and experience conversations that will yield actionable tips for common issues with Agile methods.

About the Program

The audience will learn it is OK to have a fear when undergoing organizational changes. The workshop provides exercises to help the audience identify their fear, the cause of the fear, and learn how to overcome the fear during organizational changes such as scaling to enterprise Agile. We expect the audience to walk away with a method they can use to deal with their fear due to changes.

About the Presentation

The Standish Group has published its annual CHAOS Report on the state of software development since 1994. The Report is often cited as a key metric for the industry's performance and progress and draws much attention.

Analyzing the long-term trends provides an interesting perspective. On average only 29% of projects “succeed” and 23% “failed”. Over the past two decades, there has been little change in these headline results.

However, when you dive into the data there are some bright spots and markers for the future improvement:

About the Program

It's the number one complaint of project managers -- I have all this responsibility and no authority. We have extraordinary authority! But the key is to leverage it. The challenge is ensuring that we acknowledge and apply the right types of authority in the right situations. It's a matter of exerting influence. Carl Pritchard takes us through the mechanics of influence and a few basic steps we can take to make sure we're influencing the right people...the right way.

About the Event

Are you running into issues using Agile methods on your project? Do people argue over who should attend which meetings? Do you have unanswered questions about how Project Managers fit into the Agile World?

This meetup is for people who have discovered the path to agile methods is not the easy street that was promised. We will learn from other project leaders which issues are common, and which are unique to your context. Furthermore, we’ll collect from each other several ideas for how to overcome those issues.

Unlike other meetups, this is not a lecture. Instead, our facilitator will create an interactive exchange of which issues are bothering you, and which tips have worked for others. Please come to learn, share and experience conversations that will yield actionable tips for common issues with Agile methods.

About the Program

In this highly interactive session you will learn how to scale Agile across multiple teams by adopting the core elements of the Scaled Agile framework. From setting common deliverables, to establishing priorities, these elements will ensure that your teams are in sync and delivering value to business. We’ll cover how the framework applies to project managers, how it intesects with the PMBOK, and give some tips for utilizing both methodologies in your projects.

About the Event

Are you running into issues using Agile methods on your project? Do people argue over who should attend which meetings? Do you have unanswered questions about how Project Managers fit into the Agile World?

This meetup is for people who have discovered the path to agile methods is not the easy street that was promised. We will learn from other project leaders which issues are common, and which are unique to your context. Furthermore, we’ll collect from each other several ideas for how to overcome those issues.

Unlike other meetups, this is not a lecture. Instead, our facilitator will create an interactive exchange of which issues are bothering you, and which tips have worked for others. Please come to learn, share and experience conversations that will yield actionable tips for common issues with Agile methods.

About the Course

The 2-Day PMI-ACP® Exam Prep Course is a thorough and comprehensive review of all materials required to successfully pass the PMI-ACP exam. For PMI's Agile Certification (PMI-ACP®), there is no comparable PMBOK® Guide (or Body of Knowledge) like what exists for the PMP® certification. Instead, PMI provides a reading list of eleven books they recommend students read before sitting for the exam, and a "Role Delineation Study" (RDS) that covers seven domains and numerous tasks and tools and techniques. So, in the two-day class, we will digest all the needed themes, topics, terminology and concepts addressed in these books, and the RDS, so that you are thoroughly prepared to pass the test.

About the Presentation

We will demonstrate how behaviors can be used to understand project challenges and people analytics can be used to recover projects in trouble.

We will use a mini case study approach to engage participants in exploring the contribution of behaviors to common project problems, e.g., cost overruns, schedule delays, organizational power struggles and politics, and resourcing conflict.

Participants will then be invited to identify the relative benefits of having project teams created on the basis of work area representation, versus technical knowledge and skills, versus behavioral composition.

In this way participants will learn a new way to increase the probability of project success from inception.

About the Event

This Event Has Been Cancelled

Are you running into issues using Agile methods on your project? Do people argue over who should attend which meetings? Do you have unanswered questions about how Project Managers fit into the Agile World?

This meetup is for people who have discovered the path to agile methods is not the easy street that was promised. We will learn from other project leaders which issues are common, and which are unique to your context. Furthermore, we’ll collect from each other several ideas for how to overcome those issues.

About the Event

Many executives understand the importance of a successful digital transformation for their organization; however, potential key barriers are preventing them being digitally enabled.

This session identifies key potential barriers to digital transformation and viable strategies for small and mid-market business owners and executives. By avoiding these pitfalls, executives can quickly and effectively transform their business to lower costs, implement better operational controls, and offer more competitive prices to eliminate the risk of digital disruptors.

The 7 Steps to Digital Transformation outlined the steps to a successful digital transformation. This topic is the next session in the series to guide small and midmarket companies through a successful digital transformation.

About the Presentation

About the Event

Do you have questions about Agile and how to get your teams to understand concepts? There are many methods to get teams to understand and embrace Agile.

Unlike other meet-ups, this is not a lecture. Instead, we will have coaching expertise to introduce a game in which we will all participate. The goal is that you will learn Agile concepts from game participation. In addition, you will be able to take what you have learned back to your teams.

About the Presentation

The challenge: Federal CIO’s office trying to figure out an effective process to procure Agile Delivery services when transitioning from traditional to Agile. Federal agencies are struggling to find a process to make this transition smooth and increase the likelihood of a successful agile acquisition both pre-award and post-award. Based on first hand experience, the presentation will share guidelines on different procurement models, agile contract structures, and the key pre-requisites pre-award and post-contract award.

About the Event

Are you running into issues using Agile methods on your project? Do people argue over who should attend which meetings? Do you have unanswered questions about how Project Managers fit into the Agile World?

This meetup is for people who have discovered the path to agile methods is not the easy street that was promised. We will learn from other project leaders which issues are common, and which are unique to your context. Furthermore, we’ll collect from each other several ideas for how to overcome those issues.

Unlike other meetups, this is not a lecture. Instead, our facilitator will create an interactive exchange of which issues are bothering you, and which tips have worked for others. Please come to learn, share and experience conversations that will yield actionable tips for common issues with Agile methods.

About the Event

Matrix-managed teams are becoming the norm as organizations merge and want to achieve cost savings through economies of scale. The reality of matrix teams is that you need to manage a diverse group of people from a variety of departments who don’t share the same priorities. The people don't report to you and you have little to no authority over their performance evaluation. However, you are responsible for the team's output. What’s a project manager to do?

This session will introduce several approaches to help you sidestep potential pitfalls and leverage individual team member strengths and motivate successful collaborative relationships across complex organizational boundaries.

About the Presentation

Learn how to judge the health of your Agile teams by doing a health check with real customer case study data. We'll look at data on team performance based on various Agile metrics such as Burnups/Burndowns, Cumulative Flow Diagrams, Velocity Chart, SDPI charts, and more. We’ll mine them for insight to interpret possible challenges the team is facing and determine prescriptive action items that will influence improvement.

This will be a very interactive session, where everyone comes away learning something. We’ll examine how to mine for internal performance data, evaluate what we can deduce from actions happening outside the boundaries of agile practices and pinpoint areas that will have the most impact on future projects to get them back on track. The goal is to turn work into data, data into insights and insight into action.

About the Event

Do you run retrospectives for your agile teams? Do you find that you struggle with ideas to keep the teams excited to participate in your retrospectives?

This presentation will include ideas that you can take back and use. Your teams will be excited and these ideas will help you generate great conversations.

About this Meet-Up:

This meet-up has a focus on Agile PM. We will be discussing pragmatic solutions to real agile project problems. Just real PMs talking about Agile and how we can solve daily challenges related to retrospectives.

About the Program

Navy Federal’s IT PMO had a great, solid foundation that allowed us to be chosen as PMI’s 2015 PMO of the Year. So, what happens AFTER you’re selected as PMO of the Year? How do you keep the momentum going and build upon solid practices and procedures? What are we doing to serve our internal customers, as well as our over six million members? We’ll discuss what we’ve done over the past year to take our PMO to the next level, including benefits realization, increased productivity, financial/contract management, and portfolio management.

About the Presentation

Network interaction modeling is a unique approach to analyzing business operations and understanding the interactions across an organization. With the growing pressure on organizations to do more with less – and more quickly than ever before – Network Interaction Modeling’s ability to save time and resources through targeted process and business unit improvement is increasingly relevant. NIM allows executives to dynamically view an organization’s interactions, from across the enterprise all the way down to specific, targeted connection. Its intuitive presentation, customizable quantitative analysis capabilities, and unique enterprise approach enable rapid, one-of-a-kind insight, driving change to an agency’s mission.

About the Event

Are you running into issues using Agile methods on your project? Do people argue over who should attend which meetings? Do you have unanswered questions about how Project Managers fit into the Agile World?

This meetup is for people who have discovered the path to agile methods is not the easy street that was promised. We will learn from other project leaders which issues are common, and which are unique to your context. Furthermore, we’ll collect from each other several ideas for how to overcome those issues.

Unlike other meetups, this is not a lecture. Instead, our facilitator will create an interactive exchange of which issues are bothering you, and which tips have worked for others. Please come to learn, share and experience conversations that will yield actionable tips for common issues with Agile methods.

Organizational Readiness is a critical success factor for Information Technology (IT) deployment projects. This is an area that is frequently overlooked and generally not managed by IT Project Managers. Ensuring that an organization is “ready” to use, operate, manage, administer, and support new IT systems/technologies prior to its deployment will result in a smoother transition to the new systems/technologies.

Organizations that are “ready” will more easily and promptly adopt the newly deployed systems/technologies, fully realizing its intended benefits. This presentation explores the idea of Organizational Readiness as it relates to IT system/technology deployments and the importance of formally planning and managing it to ensure project success. It also challenges the idea that IT Project success is just delivering on time, on budget, and meeting requirements.

About the Event

Customers have been spoiled. Thanks to companies such as Amazon, Airbnb, Dropbox, Netflix, and Uber they now expect every organization to deliver products swiftly, with a seamless user experience.

As a result, customers want to buy a phone from their telecommunications provider and have it activated and set up immediately out of the box. They expect to log in to an auto insurance website and get a quote and quickly compare against other providers before they buy. They want to submit an application, get a decision within minutes and obtain a digital proof of insurance instantly once they purchase a plan. They want to easily find the nearest pizza delivery service, order online, and get status of their order once they purchase.

About the Event

Are you running into issues using Agile methods on your project? Do people argue over who should attend which meetings? Do you have unanswered questions about how Project Managers fit into the Agile World?

This meetup is for people who have discovered the path to agile methods is not the easy street that was promised. We will learn from other project leaders which issues are common, and which are unique to your context. Furthermore, we’ll collect from each other several ideas for how to overcome those issues.

Unlike other meetups, this is not a lecture. Instead, our facilitator will create an interactive exchange of which issues are bothering you, and which tips have worked for others. Please come to learn, share and experience conversations that will yield actionable tips for common issues with Agile methods.

About the Presentation

Everyone investing in a governmental proposal effort wants to win. We all know not everyone will, so what does it take to win? Come join us and discover some "Tips for Preparing a Winning Technical Proposal" from a senior proposal manager.

About the Program

In the next five (5) years mobile technology will outstrip the growth of the major utilities we all know and love, like…electricity. Understanding why live streaming is taking off, and how it ties into the growth of mobile technology. This presentation will explore what has created this dynamic interest, and the reason Facebook and YouTube are only just getting started.
How many live streaming services to choose from and what you need to get started. Ms. Mattison will share her experiences on the six (6) major sources and why the competition is increasing daily and why you will want to jump in soon. What approach works for setting up your strategy for selling/marketing via live streaming to maximize your desired goals.

You’ve already put a great deal of work into preparing a solid business case for your project or idea. But when it comes to the critical presentation phase, how do you earn the support of decision makers in the room? How do you present your case so that it’s clear and straightforward while also persuasive?
This presentation introduces a practical framework for developing Executive Briefings and Presentations on the contents of your Business Case. Participants will explore a step-by-step approach to designing concise, information-packed presentations using Strategic Business Case Canvas that provides structure and visual guidance for creating powerful presentations.

About the Event

Are you running into issues using Agile methods on your project? Do people argue over who should attend which meetings? Do you have unanswered questions about how Project Managers fit into the Agile World?

This meetup is for people who have discovered the path to agile methods is not the easy street that was promised. We will learn from other project leaders which issues are common, and which are unique to your context. Furthermore, we’ll collect from each other several ideas for how to overcome those issues.

Unlike other meetups, this is not a lecture. Instead, our facilitator will create an interactive exchange of which issues are bothering you, and which tips have worked for others. Please come to learn, share and experience conversations that will yield actionable tips for common issues with Agile methods.

About the Program

As a Program Manager, a key ingredient to continuing success is your ability to recognize what it takes to manage change, pressure, and setbacks which are key ingredients to higher levels of professional and personal success. This session will help you: (1) Identify the “pillars” of resiliency; (2) Give you an opportunity to practice resilient thinking through individual and small group exercises; and (3) Provide tips on steps to take to consistently be more resilient in and outside the office.

About the Event

Are you running into issues using Agile methods on your project? Do people argue over who should attend which meetings? Do you have unanswered questions about how Project Managers fit into the Agile World?

This meetup is for people who have discovered the path to agile methods is not the easy street that was promised. We will learn from other project leaders which issues are common, and which are unique to your context. Furthermore, we’ll collect from each other several ideas for how to overcome those issues.

Unlike other meetups, this is not a lecture. Instead, our facilitator will create an interactive exchange of which issues are bothering you, and which tips have worked for others. Please come to learn, share and experience conversations that will yield actionable tips for common issues with Agile methods.

About the Presentation

What is the Product Owner (PO) role? Is it different in the federal space and the commercial space? What are the challenges that the PO face? If we were to define a PO persona, what would it look like? Does a conventional PO role work in the government? What changes are needed to enable the PO in the government? How would the PO role apply in the government settings? Does the organizational structure affect the PO role?

The product owner role is one of the most demanding and critical roles on agile projects. The PO is engaged with the stakeholders (those who will be impacted by the product) as well as the development (delivery) team (those who will be delivering the product).

The objective of Introduction to Earned Value Management is to introduce the students to basic earned value concepts and to recognize how to manage and report against the metrics that are produced. During this session, a simple case study will be presented and metrics calculated including cost variance, schedule variance, estimate at completion, to-complete-performance-index, etc. This overview fully follows the foundation provided in the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK® Guide) established by the Project Management Institute (PMI®).

About the Event

Are you running into issues using Agile methods on your project? Do people argue over who should attend which meetings? Do you have unanswered questions about how Project Managers fit into the Agile World?

This meetup is for people who have discovered the path to agile methods is not the easy street that was promised. We will learn from other project leaders which issues are common, and which are unique to your context. Furthermore, we’ll collect from each other several ideas for how to overcome those issues.

Unlike other meetups, this is not a lecture. Instead, our facilitator will create an interactive exchange of which issues are bothering you, and which tips have worked for others. Please come to learn, share and experience conversations that will yield actionable tips for common issues with Agile methods.